Our picture shows Representatives from Belgium paying their respects at the 2017 Commemorations sa St James ni Cemetery
Parades at mga serbisyo na inayos ayon sa Dover Town Council upang gunitain ang ika-100 anibersaryo ng Zeebrugge Raid ay na gaganapin sa St George Araw (Abril 23).
Ang Zeebrugge Bell sa Maison Dieu (bulwagan ng bayan), Dover, ay struck bawat taon sa tanghali sa memorya ng mga boluntaryo na kinuha bahagi sa ang pangahas amphibious raid sa Belgian port ng Zeebrugge. pagsalakay ay isang desperado pagtatangka sa pamamagitan ng Royal Navy ni Dover Patrol upang ihinto German submarines wreaking kalituhan sa gitna magkakatulad pagpapadala.
Maraming buhay ang nawala at pang-alaala serbisyo ay gaganapin sa baybaying komunidad ng Dover at Zeebrugge ever since, may mga kaganapan sa taong ito itakda upang maglingkod bilang isa sa mga pangunahing commemorations ng sentenaryo na kaganapan na may kaugnayan sa Unang Digmaang Pandaigdig.
Dover mga kaganapan 23 Abril 2018
- 10.15I am: Serbisyo at wreath laying sa Zeebrugge Memorial, St James ni Cemetery, Dover, pinangunahan ng Mayor ng Dover. Royal Navy at Royal Marines sa pagdalo. Paalala: Ang kalsada sa St James ni Cemetery at car park ay isasara para sa pampublikong pag-access nakapalibot sa serbisyo at parada.
- 11.30I am: Parade mula sa Market Square sa Maison Dieu (bulwagan ng bayan) pinangunahan ng Royal Marines at band.
- tanghali: Mayor ng Dover rings 'Eight Bells' sa Zeebrugge Bell, na sinusundan ng isang maikling service.
HMS Somerset ay naging bahagi ng paggunita sa Belgium at maglayag sa Dover para sa anniversary.
Dover Museum ay pagtatanghal ng dula ng isang eksibisyon, Twisting ang Dragon ni Tail - Ang Dover Patrol at ang Zeebrugge Raid, na magsasama ng first-hand account ng mga reyd at artefact at mga larawan mula sa raiding force, pati na rin ang pagtingin sa papel ng Dover Patrol sa pagsunod sa Channel ligtas para sa pagpapadala.
Sa pag-asa ng ikasandaang taong anibersaryo sa taong ito, Ang Zeebrugge Bell ay naibalik at nalinis sa Loughborough bell pandayan ni John Taylor & Co at konserbasyon trabaho ay natupad sa bell pabahay at tower.
iba pang mga kaganapan
Sa Abril 23 sa hapon, ang Royal Marines Heritage Trails will be launched in Deal, post_type 2.5 mile self-guided walking tour that links 23 locations in Deal and Walmer that mark the Royal Marines’ 350-year association with the area. Royal Marines will also be exercising their Freedom of the Town.
The Royal Marines played a pivotal role in the 1918 raid on Zeebrugge with many of them trained at the Royal Marines Depot in Deal.
Members of the Royal Marines Association also mark the anniversary of the raid each year, first in Zeebrugge where a parade and church service is held and veterans visit the remains of the mole where so many of the attackers were killed as well as memorials marking key points of the engagement, then in Dover where this year they will march through the town.
The Dover event follows two days of commemorations at Zeebrugge and Ostend (Abril 21 - 22), which will be attended by the Mayor of Dover.
Historical background
By 1917, U-boats raiding shipping lanes in the Atlantic, the North Sea and the English Channel were sinking up to 400 ships a month, threatening the supplies of food and war materials vital to the war effort.
The U-boats were based in heavily fortified pens at Bruges and accessed the Channel via an eight-mile canal to the port of Zeebrugge, and an older, narrower canal to Ostend. At the time, Zeebrugge was the world’s largest man-made harbour, extending a mile and a half out to sea.
Attempts to block submarine access to the port with bombing, shelling, minefields and net barrages had failed, so the Royal Navy hatched a plan to scuttle three old cruisers, filled with concrete, in the entrance of the canal at Zeebrugge to prevent the U-boats accessing their home base to refit, resupply, rearm and refuel.
The 75-strong British armada, commanded by Vice Admiral Roger Keyes, was led by HMS Vindictive, an Arrogant-class cruiser, supported by two submarines and a flotilla of smaller craft, including two former Mersey ferries, which made ideal landing craft. The force of volunteers who took part in the raid consisted of 82 officers, 1,000 sailors and 700 marines.
Things soon started to go wrong. The diversionary attack on the harbour was supposed to be covered by a smokescreen, but thanks to an unexpected change of wind direction the smoke blew away and German gunners on the mole were able to continue to fire at the invaders at close range, inflicting many casualties as the marines sought to seize and destroy the gun emplacements, engaging them at close quarters.
The strong current made it difficult for HMS Vindictive to discharge men on the breakwater and the landing craft were severely damaged, suffering many casualties as they tried to get the raiders ashore. In total, 277 lalaki ang napatay at 356 nasugatan.
The crews of two of the blockships did manage to get to the entrance of the inner harbour and sink them but did not fully block it. The Germans were able to dredge a new channel round the obstacles and the port was back in operation within days. German casualties were just eight dead and 16 nasugatan.
A simultaneous raid on Ostend failed but the Royal Navy returned in May to try again, when the HMS Vindictive was sunk in an attempt to block the port.
Both sides claimed success, the Germans maintaining that U-boats were able to pass the scuttled wreck within two days. gayunman, Winston Churchill insisted that the action had severely curtailed submarine operations against Allied shipping and described the raid as “the finest feat of arms of the Great War”.
Eleven Victoria Crosses and hundreds of other decorations were awarded to those who took part in the attacks. Most of the Zeebrugge casualties were buried in England either because they died of their wounds en route or because the survivors recovered their bodies to repatriate them. HMS Vindictive returned the majority to Dover, where 156 bodies were kept in a makeshift morgue in the town’s Market Hall. A mass funeral took place at St James’s Cemetery, Dover, sa 27 Abril, 1918 with sailors and marines buried in one mass grave under the spur that overlooks the cemetery from the south-west. The Zeebrugge plot of St James’s Cemetery, Dover, has nine unidentified men and 50 named men who died on 23 Abril 1918 but most fatalities were returned to their families for local burials. On his request, Keyes was buried here beside his men following his death on 26 Disyembre 1945. Four Royal Navy personnel who died in the raid are buried in the cemetery at Zeebrugge where there is also a memorial to the raid.
Shortly after Zeebrugge was liberated by advancing Allied troops in October 1918, The ‘Zeebrugge Bell’ was given to Dover’s Mayor, Edwin Farley by Vice Admiral Keyes. It had served as an alarm bell on the mole and was given to Keyes to pass to Dover by Albert I, The King of the Belgians, as a souvenir of the raid and a tribute to the heroism of the attackers. The bell was first placed at St Mary’s Church but in 1921 it was moved to the Grade I listed Maison Dieu. Sa 1933, the bell briefly returned to St Mary’s Church for a special service broadcast on BBC radio.
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